Two of five decisions handed down this morning by the Kansas Supreme Court involve convictions in Lyon County District Court cases.
The conviction of Robert William Richardson II was overturned; the conviction of Wallace L. Dixon was upheld.
Richardson has convicted of intentionally exposing two women to the HIV virus during sexual trysts with them at motels in Emporia. Richardson, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1998, earlier was convicted on a similar charge in Douglas County. He was undergoing treatment to control symptoms of the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
He and the two women lived in northeast Kansas at the time.
The court’s decision upheld the constitutionality of a statute making it a crime to knowingly infect someone with a life-threatening communicable disease, if intent is proven.
“The Court determined that intent to infect two women with the virus was not proven at trial, and reverses the defendant’s Lyon County convictions,” a notice from the Supreme Court stated.
The court affirmed the conviction of Wallace L. Dixon, who had been convicted twice on two counts of felony murder and other charges resulting from an explosion at an Eastgate Plaza apartment in Emporia.Dixon had been convicted in Lyon County District Court and, when his request for a retrial was granted, was tried again and convicted by a jury in Saline County.
On the appeal of the second trial, the Supreme Court rejected Dixon’s challenges.
Lyon County Attorney Marc Goodman could not be reached for comment before press time.
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